plant caulescent, erect, branching at the base, producing offsets at or along the base of the stem; stems erect or curved, very short, (5-)15 cm long, 5–8 mm diameter. leaves dark green to light green (depending on light exposure), soft, forming an 90° angle with the stem; sheath widely ovate, 0.8–10 mm long, 0.8–10 mm wide, dark purple, enclosing the stems, with spines only on the upper half, lepidote on both surfaces in the upper area; blade narrowly triangular, acute and long acuminate, in older leaves (3.5-)4.5–6 cm long, 4–6 mm wide, glabrous adaxially, lepidote on the abaxial surface, with trichomes organized in a way that they show the scars left by the margins of the older leaf below the new one, these scars are kept during the life of the leaf; margins serrate, spines very soft, up to 3 mm long, erect, antrorse, hook-shaped, green or usually light brown, becoming smaller towards the apex, 2–3 mm apart. inflorescence compound, lateral branches with fascicles of 2 flowers, the apical with 4 flowers, the apical ones opening first, two at a time; inflorescence* bracts like the leaves in shape,* texture, indument and margins but shorter and narrower, ca 5 mm long, 0.4–0.5 mm wide, dark red only basally, with fine longitudinal white lines in the abaxial surface, erect to spreading (45°) when flowers in anthesis; floral bracts ovate, acute and acuminate, cucullate, 15 mm long, 6–7 mm wide, margins almost completely entire, with sparse spines (1 on each side). flowers all hermaphrodite, campanulate, not open completely, 2.3 cm long, very fragrant; sepals 10 mm long, connate by 5 mm, free lobes triangular, 2 mm wide, margins hyaline, middle longitudinal zone purple, lepidote in the longitudinal median adaxial surface, one of them canaliculate, carinate, all nerves concentrated in the middle longitudinal area, margins entire; petals widely elliptic, rounded, 2 cm long, connate by 6 mm, rounded, 9 mm wide, petaloid, thicker that many other species. stamens highly adnate to petals blades up to the area where blades become broader; filament 12–13 mm long; anther 2–3 mm long, dorsifixed. pistil: style 15–16 mm long; stigma simple erect, with the three semicircular stylar lobes highly connate and with minutely fimbriate margins; ovary 2–3 mm long, trigonous; placentation subapical; ovules 6 to 8 per locule, narrowly ovate, obtuse. fruits unknown.Edited from : Ramirez 1996. Systematics, phylogeny and chromosome number evolution in Cryptanthus (Bromeliaceae) .